The Grok

Author: Orson Scott Card
First Year of Publication: 1985
Awards: Nebula Award (1985), Hugo (1986)

Ender's Game is a story of a young boy called Ender Wiggins who is enlisted into Battle School to fight the alien attack on Earth. Earth has been attacked twice by an alien species called 'Buggers' and mankind decides that training intelligent children to become soldiers and commanders will tilt the balance of the war. Ender joins the Battle School at a young age of six, after both his sister, Valentine and old brother, Peter are rejected.

Ender finds out the difficulty of leading a life of solitude that comes with the status of being smarter than his peers, at the Battle School. Soon he climbs the ranks and begins training to command Earth's battle fleet.

Now, when I started reading the book, I already knew about the amazing reviews of the book and after I had finished half the book, I was sorely disappointed. Not much had happened, Ender was still training in the Battle School and most of the time the narrative would be about the training battles that were taking place. I prefer reading hard science fiction, so the philosophical aspects rarely interest me. There was absolutely no advancement of the plot and my interest was dwindling.

However, a subplot involving Peter and Valentine soon took off and Ender had moved out of the Battle School and my interest was back in the book. The last quarter of the book is gripping as the plot begins to unravel, culminating with a major twist in the story.

Ender's game is an excellent reading, poking the reader with some important questions on our society. I felt one of the important questions asked by the book was, in a world where winning is emphasized so much, where do we set the limits for what we should do to win? Can winning become so addictive, that despite a person's strong ethics, one can become coerced by our competitive society to succeed at all costs? The other important question was whether preemptive actions against an enemy to secure one's future are justified. Interestingly enough, the recent Operation Iraqi freedom, exemplifies this question.

The most interesting science fiction element of the book were the 3D battles that took place in the Battle School. The zero gravity manuevers and fire fights are described in fascinating detail. One of the memorable battle school moments in the book involved Ender's battle against a squad which had an unfair advantage. The opposing squad had arrived early and secretly positioned its soldiers around Ender's group entry point. Ender realizes that his group would be massacred if they entered the battle room. The odds are stacked up against him, but he comes up with an amazing strategy to ultimately win the battle. The ansible is also an interesting science fiction element introduced in the book. It also brings up the idea of collaborative forum for serious discussion which is mind blowing, considering the fact that today we have the Usenet serving this purpose. Half the book keeps the buggers in mystery, and it is worth reading the final half to find out about the aliens.

Ender's game is a very readable science fiction story. It is a very serious book, and I hardly recall any light moments in the book. The characters will eventually grow on you and by the end of the book, you'll appreciate the narrative style. It is filled with profound statements and personal favourite was by Valentine,

"Welcome to the human race. Nobody controls his own life, Ender. The best you can do is choose to be controlled by good people, by people who love you." (Valentine)

There are four more books in the series, three of them are sequels: Speaker of the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind. The last one, Ender's Shadow, is set in the same timeline as Ender's Game.

Orson Scott Card has a website.

Rating: 3.5 / 5.0